Two amazing (to me anyway) things

Monday, August 19, 2013

1. My Zumba mentor/BFF and I co-teach crazy early a.m. zumba to a FABULOUS group of ladies (about 15 of them). Mentor recently got Aqua Zumba licensed, and wanted to test out some choreo on the ladies, and just have a nice little get-together afterward, potluck & BYOB (one of the ladies has an in-ground pool). We did this Friday night, and while I'm not a fan of AZ myself, overall it was a blast, as we had a great time socializing after. It was a great bonding experience not only with students, but helped their bonds with EACH OTHER. So, I'm not ZA licensed, but BFF asked me to help her lead a song I had helped her choreo the night before. So, here I am, in swim shorts (clinging to me, nonetheless) sports bra, and tank, in front of all these ladies, not thinking ANYTHING of it. Maybe you can't relate, but there was not ONE SINGLE NEGATIVE DEROGATORY COMMENT about myself AT ALL; my brain was blissfully silent, and I just OWNED my body, and did the song.

2. Sitting around after, people were commenting about life in general; the balance of eating & working out in a crazy hectic week, and it saddened me how many of them made comments about not feeling good about themselves physically. Why is it so easy to beat ourselves up???? I think ALL of them are doing a fabulous job of being active despite the obstacles, and it helped drive the point home that I DO NOT WANT TO BE DOWN ON MYSELF EVER AGAIN. I'm telling you, this whole "body acceptance" thing that i have going on is sooooo foreign to me. I keep telling myself if this is the price to pay for hitting the big 4-0 next January, I will gladly accept it! Fair exchange, IMO.

And ladies, you will understand this part....all of this happened right before Aunt Flo; the time when I'm normally feeling so incredibly frustrated with my lack of perfection.

Hurrah! I'm not gonna run around wearing an "I'm awesome" tee shirt or anything anytime soon, but after spending 30 years criticizing my own appearance, I feel like celebrating!

Well, you know how I feel on this subject. Remember my blog about trying to take a compliment? Well, there are times when I forget that I even wrote that. So, apparently, I am still struggling with it. Congrats on your self confidence. Maybe it will rub off on me.

Let me just remind you of something that has become obvious to me after speding more time with the Latina Zumba instructors... They are HARDER on themselves then we white girls are! It's bread into them, part of their culture (is what my friend Andrea tells me) ... even their mohers will say things like "You are going out in THAT???" I was FLABBERGHASTED in the amount of self acceptance they have, it's always "I gotta be better, I gotta be better!"

SOmetimes we need to recognize that we are pretty damn awesome just the way we are, right now!In our unique, special way!

(at Convention, I really wanted to get the shirt, "Different is the new normal" because ain't that the truth??? But it wasn't avaliable, so I got "I don't sweat, I glow" instead! LMAO)

Sometimes that's just where conversation goes with women. Like we don't have permission to be fair and content with where we are. I'm trying to do that and honestly, it's a conversation stopper - not bragging, just saying, "right now, I'm happy where I am." It's also hard to be eating with some friends and they don't support if I choose not to eat or drink something. That is tough too.